Honduras tops ICSID disputes list in 2024
CDR | 20 February 2025
Honduras tops ICSID disputes list in 2024
by Dippy Singh
The Central American country was involved in five of the new ICSID cases registered last year – knocking Mexico off the top spot – while the institution’s caseload suffered a slight fall.
The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) reached its fifth-highest caseload in history in 2024, although there was a slight decrease in case numbers compared to the previous year.
The centre’s latest caseload statistics, which were published on 14 February and covers the 2024 calendar year as well as all cases from 1972 when the first case was registered, reveals 55 new arbitrations were lodged in 2024, down from 57 in 2023 and the institution’s record-breaking 66 in 2021.
Arbitrations filed under the ICSID Convention accounted for the majority of new cases, standing at 53, while two cases were registered under the ICSID Additional Facility Rules, which offers arbitration where one, or neither, of the parties is an ICSID member state or a national of the state.
In total, 1,022 arbitration and conciliation cases have been registered under the ICSID Convention and Additional Facility Rules.
Over half (52%) of the new cases in 2024 asserted ICSID jurisdiction on the basis of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and 14% on the basis of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT); a further 14% were brought under contracts between a host state and investor, while 5% were brought under domestic investment laws and under the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement, respectively. Meanwhile, 4% were brought under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), while 2% of new cases were brought under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), Colombia-El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras Free Trade Agreement, and Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, respectively.
In terms of geographical scope, states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia came out top, accounting for 24% of new cases, followed by Central America and the Caribbean, South American and sub-Saharan Africa, each making up 16% of arbitrations. Western European states were involved in 11% of cases, while North America came in at 9%. At the bottom of the table were the Middle East and North Africa, and South and East Asia and the Pacific, which were involved in 4% of cases respectively.
Honduras was the most featured state, which was involved in five of the new cases registered last year, followed by Peru and Mexico at four cases each, and Panama at three. All the other jurisdictions were involved in either two or one of the new cases registered. This means Honduras and Mexico have now swapped places in the table, with 2023 seeing Mexico top the list with 10 cases, followed by Honduras, which was tangled up in nine of the new cases registered.
As in 2023, oil, gas and mining took the crown for highest volume of disputes by sector in 2024 at 38%. Electric power and other energy sources came in second at 24%, followed by “other industry sectors” at 13% (including insurance and pharmaceutical markets), transport at 11%, construction and finance at 5% each, and information and communication, and services and trade each accounting for 2% of the disputes.
One notable figure was the increase in disputes decided by a tribunal. Of the arbitrations that concluded in 2024, 78% were decided by a tribunal – a visible jump from 69% in 2023 – while 22% were settled or otherwise discontinued.
Of the disputes that were determined by tribunals, 53% of the awards upheld the investors’ claims in part or in full, compared to 55% in 2023; 30% of awards rejected all of the investors’ claims on the merits (31% in 2023), and 17% of awards declined jurisdiction (14% in 2023).
When it comes to diversity and gender, 45 nationalities were represented among the 228 arbitrator appointments made in 2024, with 38% from Western Europe, 23% from South America and 18% from North America. However, sub-Saharan Africa represented only 5% of the appointments, while the Middle East & North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Central America and the Caribbean combined made up only 6% of the total.
Women accounted for just a quarter (25%) of all appointments made to ICSID cases in 2024, down from 32% in 2023. However, the picture looked slightly better regarding ICSID-selected arbitrators, which revealed a 43%-women to 57%-men split.
Earlier this month, the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICC) released its preliminary 2024 figures, which also revealed a small drop in its 2024 caseload, although the amounts in dispute reached a record high.
